Tafseer Surah Kafirun, Nouman Ali Khan,

Surah Kafirun

Introduction:
-This Surah has the connection with Surah Takathur.

Al-Kaafiroon : 1

قُلْ يٰٓأَيُّهَا الْكٰفِرُونَ

Say, "O disbelievers,-

-This is in response to the insult to Prophet Muhammad SAW.
-Allah is saying to Prophet Muhammad SAW to call them as Kafirun.
-Kaafir: it is crime/action together with the name being called.
-These are the worst ppl because even after so much of Dawah of Prophet Muhammad SAW, their hearts are not softened and they are insulting Prophet Muhammad SAW.
-Allah(swt) is commanding Prophet Muhammad SAW to be harsh with this ppl . The reason is that Prophet Muhammad SAW is gentle & merciful in nature.

Political Compromise:
-The Kaafirun group of ppl knows that Prophet Muhammad SAW will never stop his dawah work so they are doing compromise here.  They are saying ,"you take a little,and I will give little". By saying "We will practice Islam this year and then you practice our religion next year"
-This is a Shaytan trick because a lit bit of compromise  will be enough to destroy it.
"Those who claimed to believe/enter the fold of Islam, accept it completely"
-Allah has given Al-Kauthar which is not compromised by our Prophet Muhammad SAW with wealth etc. And, Prophet Muhammad SAW do not need to fear as he has already gone through the trials. So, Allah is saying , go and call them Kaafirun as we have given you enough strength to do it.

Why Kaafirun is being used?
-Kaafirun are addressed in Yawmul Qiyamah and even at that scenario the angels/believers are saying "what excuse you have?". This is a ijama of all the scholars and even at that day- Allah will not address them.
- At this surah, Allah is not addressing them, he is asking
Prophet Muhammad SAW to address the Kuffar

1) Making Dawah:
It is like a sales but there is a difference. In sales, the owner will be desperate to sell his products to the customer.  The Quraish is having the same mentality and they are treating dawah like sales, and they think Prophet Muhammad SAW as a owner. So , Allah is saying to Prophet Muhammad SAW that they will not accept Islam and call them kuffar.

-it is only talking about a particular kuffar who had the best opportunity to accept Islam. It is not talking about all the kuffars. They had the best caller, da'ee , who is Prophet Muhammad SAW.

- And they refused to believe in for such long time.  Allah swt did not specify on which they disbelieved in, he left it out. All of us have conscious of Islam before we even born. We have given the testimony of shahadah even before we born.

Kaffirun also means not being grateful:
-This group of people (Quraish) are favoured in many ways
1) Prophet Ibrahim dua
2) They were protected by Al-fil.
3) They were blessed with Prophet Muhammad SAW
And the list goes on, they were blessed with so many means. But ,they were still ungrateful to Allah

"Even if other person treats you with animosity , treat him like how you are close to a  person /gentleness" -This is what Allah said to Prophet Muhammad SAW but now he is saying to Prophet Muhammad SAW to call them as kuffar .

Prophet Muhammad SAW is saying that this is not my words but Allah’s words and how can I change it . But , the Quraish is treating like its Prophet Muhammad SAW words.

Reminder To Us:
-This is not indicating to all non-believers.  It is only indicating to the specific disbelievers, Quraysh who deny the favours of Allah, even after endless reminders by Prophet Muhammad SAW.
-Don't misuse the words of Allah -By using this surah to all the disbelievers

Surah Kafirun Part 2:

Prophet Muhammad SAW said ya ayuhal Kaafirun straight to them. He (saw )did  not even say Ya Quraysh , etc.  It is in modern times which we call as renouncing the citizenship.  This is the complete separation between Muslims and Non-Muslims.

Furthermore, he did not even say I am calling you as Kaafirun but I am commanded to say this. Allah swt does not even want to directly call them as Kaafirun.

This group of people knows that Prophet Muhammad SAW as truthful though they made propaganda that he is liar. If, they had an ounce of goodness ,they will feel bad for Prophet Muhammad SAW to call them as Kafirun.  However, a despicable human being will never feel bad if someone use offensive language on them.

Ya Ayuha:
-It is used commonly in Quran. For example: Ya ayuhal aminouv
-It is used to seperate things that it is being mentioned.
-Hence Allah swt is separating them from the muslims.

Anger of Allah:
By saying , ya Kaafirun , we can see how Allah is angry with them .

Al-Kaafiroon : 2

لَآ أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ

I do not worship what you worship.


Ibadah(to be slave of Allah)
1) obedience to Allah
-Obedience of Allah comes first. If you are obedient other than Allah, then you are doing shirk
2) Love for Allah should be more than anything(eg spouse ,children)
-
3) Tawakul
-We have to trust our master and we have to trust his situations, laws no matter what. And , we should remind ourselves that Allah is making our life easier, and we should have trust in that.
4) Sincerity
-Especially the Ibadah like sadaqah , we should do it sincerily and only for Allah. For example, when you are making sadaqah , make intention that you are doing it only for Allah . And do not mix your intentions by thinking that this is also good way to remove your taxes. Allah do not like to share this intention.
-Many of us when we are serving Allah’s deen, we will start off with good sincerity.  However , over the time, that sincerity will be no more or your intentions will be changed. Hence, alwaya constantly renew your intentions.
-Maintain Ikhlas
5)Terms of Slavery
-when we join a job, we will have a contract.
-many of the contracts, have compromises. However , for Allah (swt) do not have compromises.  You have to worship Allah like how you are instructed by Allah and not by how you would like.

More explanation of Ibadah:
1) worship
2) slavery

Hence, this ayat indicates both the worship & slavery.

For example when you are sleeping, eating , you are not worshipping but not you are still the slaves of Allah.  This is a very important concept.  Scholars taught that Ibadah is when we are still the slave of Allah in between your prayers.  Some people do not understand the word Ibadah properly because they undeerstand only the partial translation -which is to just worship.  For example: there will be people who will be praying 5 times a day but will go and watch movie in between the prayer time or someone who holds a liquor shop, will pray 5 times a day & they will think that they have done the Ibadah.  But, they have not done the Ibadah.

The problem with the Quraysh, Arabs
They have two problems.  They don't want to leave their shirk. And, they do not want to be Allah’s slaves- to refuse to give zakaat to poor or to stop killing baby- girls.

To be continued, In Shaa Allah

Surah Kafirun Part 3

Al-Kaafiroon : 3

وَلَآ أَنتُمْ عٰبِدُونَ مَآ أَعْبُدُ

Nor are you worshippers of what I worship.

Al-Kaafiroon : 4

وَلَآ أَنَا۠ عَابِدٌ مَّا عَبَدتُّمْ

Nor will I be a worshipper of what you worship.

They are not only the worshippers of false gods but they are worshippers to their own desires.

The Quraish wants a harmony in future so that is the reason they placed this compromise.

And, for most grammarians the word LA is used to indicate future tense. However, in this Ayat Allah has commanded Prophet Muhammad SAW that he will never compromise to his own desires and the deen of Islam

Al-Kaafiroon : 4

وَلَآ أَنَا۠ عَابِدٌ مَّا عَبَدتُّمْ

Nor will I be a worshipper of what you worship.

Al-Kaafiroon : 5

وَلَآ أَنتُمْ عٰبِدُونَ مَآ أَعْبُدُ

Nor will you be worshippers of what I worship.

And, this ayat indicates to emphasise that they will never come to Islam. Used for future.

It is because we know that Prophet Muhammad SAW never made shirk in his lifetime. And, he became the slave of Allah after the revelations.

Am Abrahum:
-Its like how you tie something so much that you are planning not to untie again.  (Verb is used)
-Allah is saying that they do not want to untie their kuffar. So Allah says that he will tie the same kind of rope that they will never enter Islam (Noun is used)

Difference between noun & verb:
Noun is used for something that has been already done unlike the verb. So, Allah is stressing the word here.

 Al-Kaafiroon : 5

وَلَآ أَنتُمْ عٰبِدُونَ مَآ أَعْبُدُ

Nor will you be worshippers of what I worship.

This ayat indicates past tense.

And I have never worshipped of what you have worshipped, even in the past .

Why this ayat is being repeated?
-it is when someone get angry, harsh like someone who says "do you hear me?,do you hear me?".
-people repeat things when you want to get smthg right.  This is what Allah is doing.

What worship I do , I will never do:

Ma is used for quality to being highlighted, like saying what kind of amazing god,Allah I worship & service to unlike what kind of god that you worship and service to.

Al-Kaafiroon : 6

لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِىَ دِينِ

Most commonly misinterpreted ayat in the Quranas this-
"For you is your religion, and for me is my religion."

For you is your lifestyle and for mine ,it my lifestyle.


Deen
-come from the word dayn which means loan or government.  And it necessesiate owner.
-Judgement day also means when what you should get.

This ayat also is open challenge hellfire, judgement dY


This is minsterpreted that Prophet Muhammad SAW did not care about what the shirk that people are doing. We have to understand the context of the ayat. This is uses after decades of what Prophet Muhammad SAW preached and yet people refuse to listen.

There is a conflict here:
Quraish left all their idols in the Kabah.  So, PBUH job is to make dawah. So, Prophet Muhammad SAW is like saying to them -"do what you want, but my religion is guaranteed to succeed"
Surah Kafirun Part 4:

Al-Kaafiroon : 6

لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِىَ دِينِ

For you is your religion, and for me is my religion."

Koul is used because Allah swt want him to say it. And, we should understand that Allah’s help to Prophet Muhammad SAW will always be there. The reason is that some historians will say that Prophet Muhammad SAW will be nothing without his followers-astagfirullah. But, we should understand that even without the support of Sahabas etc, Prophet Muhammad SAW would  have received help from Allah anyways.

For deeni, why ya is used
1)exclamation

Allah's roles has been maximised by saying Koul.

Anything that you worship that can be your idols,lifestyle etc, we are disassociating with it.

Another place in Quran (talking about legacy of Ibrahim(AS))
"For you already, there is beautiful roles model..
-we are completely dissociating anything that beside Allah ....
-we are doing kufr on you and your religion.
-And, now hatred and animosity has
-Until you accept Islam"

Sounds familiar?

Ibrahim(AS) legacy is being repeated in Prophet Muhammad SAW.  Though Ibrahim(as) had few followers compared to Prophet Muhammad SAW who had many followers-for both of them Allah has commanded them to speak up. This how beautifully tie up the lessons in Quran.